AIA Philadelphia announced today that it has awarded the 2013 Young Architect Award to Brian Szymanik, Principal.
From the AIA's Press Release:
Brian Szymanik, AIA, and Denise Thompson, AIA, have been selected to receive the 2013 Young Architect Award. The award is presented annually to a registered architect member between the ages of 25 and 39, wnho displays excellence and promise of future merit in design excellence, practice, education, or service. Szymanik and Thompson will receive their awards the evening of Oct. 14 at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel during AIA Philadelphia’s annual Design Awards Banquet.
“The Jury was, again this year, taken by the high caliber of the candidates, says Mary Werner DeNadai, FAIA, chair of AIA Philadelphia’s Fellows Committee, which presents the award. “We eventually came to select two very diverse sets of credentials in the pair of young architects for this year. Philadelphia has a very promising future for new architecture and planning if these candidates are just a small representation of all young architects out there.”
Szymanik is a graduate of the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania (post-professional master of architecture) and the Tyler School of Art at Temple University (bachelor of architecture). He co-founded Studio 6mm with David Quadrini in 2013. Studio 6mm is a full-service architecture, design, and planning firm based in Philadelphia. Supported by a fabrication shop, the studio is prepared to equally engage the practical, theoretical, material, and experiential qualities of the field of architecture. Szymanik is also currently the visiting assistant professor of practice at Marywood University's School of Architecture, where he coordinates the fourth-year design studio sequence and teaches courses in building technology and environmental systems. He has served on the faculties at Temple University's Tyler School of Art and at Philadelphia University's College of Architecture and the Built Environment.
Thompson is a Massachusetts native and a 2002 graduate of Temple University (bachelor of architecture). Thompson is an associate at FrancisCauffman, where she has been a project manager focusing on healthcare design since 2003. Since 2005, she has been an active volunteer in the AIA, starting as the state associate director to the AIAPA board of directors and continuing on to be the Pennsylvania representative on the AIA National Associates Committee and Young Architects Forum. In addition to the various juries, knowledge communities, and committees she has participated in, Thompson reinstated the local Philadelphia Young Architects Forum and has been a member of the AIA Philadelphia board of directors since 2010.
Previous winners of the Young Architect Award include: James Oleg Kruhly, Alan Greenberger, Wesley Wei, James Wentling, Patricia Kucker, Daniela Holt Voith, Douglas Seiler, David Whatley Hinson, Harris Steinberg, Rachel Simmons Schade, Joseph Powell, Sam Olshin, Robert Shamble, RobertHotes, Andrew Phillips, Todd Woodward, Shawn Evans, Todd Drake, Anthony Bracali, Scott Kelly, John Cluver, Daryn Edwards, Patrick StewartMcdonough, Karen Blanchard, Michael Kelly, Jules Dingle, and DanielleDiLeo Kim.